CRISPR Timeline

The research team led by University of California, Berkeley, professor Jennifer Doudna and Umea University professor Emmanuelle Charpentier, formerly of the University of Vienna, was the first to identify, disclose, file a patent application for and publish the key components of the CRISPR-Cas9 system needed to edit DNA, the code of life, in bacteria, plant, animal and human cells as well as in test tubes.

Doudna, Charpentier, Martin Jinek of UC Berkeley and Krzystof Chylinski of the University of Vienna file first patent application for CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in all environments, including bacteria, plant, animal and human cells.

June 28, 2012

UC FIRST TO PUBLISH.

The Doudna-Charpentier team publishes the first scientific article detailing their gene-editing discovery (Science).

Roughly 6 Months Later

Six separate research teams, including Doudna’s, publish the first use of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in living cells, specifically human and animal cells.

December 12, 2012

The Broad Institute, a collaboration between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, files a patent application for the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in plants, animals and human cells (eukaryotes).

April 15, 2014

The Broad Institute receives the first patent for CRISPR-Cas9, specific to plant and animal cells.

January 11, 2016

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announces interference proceeding to determine whether several of the Broad’s patents (later also adding a pending Broad application) interferes with UC’s foundational patent application.

February 15, 2017

Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finds that Broad’s patent claims do not interfere with UC’s patent claims. The PTAB did not reach a decision as to who was first to invent the use of CRISPR in plant and animal cells.

May 10, 2017

UC GRANTED FIRST EU PATENT EP2800811

European Patent Office (EPO) grants UC team the first CRISPR-Cas9 patent in the European Union (EU), encompassing more than 35 countries. The patent covers uses of CRISPR-Cas9 in plants, animals and human cells (eukaryotes).

July 25, 2017

UC appeals PTAB decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

USPTO grants UC team its first patent on CRISPR-Cas9, covering use of a version of the gene-editing tool that is more easily employed inside any type of plant or animal cell or outside a cell.

September 10, 2018

US Court of Appeals affirms the USPTO, concluding that the Broad Institute patent for use of CRISPR-Cas9 in plant and animal cells is separately patentable from UC’s invention of the use of CRISPR-Cas9 in any environment.

October 30, 2018

UC GRANTED U.S. PATENT 10,113,167

USPTO grants patent to UC team covering unique RNA guides that act like precision-targeted gene-editing scissors when combined with the Cas9 protein.

March 12, 2019

UC GRANTED U.S. PATENT 10,227,611

USPTO grants patent to UC team covering CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology using single-molecule guide RNAs and its applications in any cell.

USPTO issues notice of allowance for patent application (U.S. 16/201,848) covering methods of cleaving, modifying or targeting and binding a target DNA in a cell using a CRISPR protein-RNA complex. The application is scheduled to issue as U.S. Patent No. 10,337,029 on July 2, 2019.

April 23, 2019

UC GRANTED U.S. PATENT 10,266,850

USPTO grants patent, originally involved in prior terminated interference proceeding, to UC team covering CRISPR methods and systems that use single-molecule guide RNAs in any environment.

May 20, 2019

USPTO issues notice of allowance for patent application (U.S. 16/201,853) covering CRISPR methods for targeting and binding, modifying or cleaving a target DNA with a Cas9 protein that contains a mutation in a RuvC and/or HNH domain and a single-molecule guide RNA.

USPTO issues notice of allowance for patent application (U.S. 16/201,855) covering methods of producing a genetically modified cell through the introduction of the Cas9 protein or a nucleic acid encoding the Cas9 protein and a single molecule DNA-targeting RNA or a nucleic acid encoding the DNA-targeting RNA.

May 28, 2019

UC GRANTED U.S. PATENT 10,301,651

USPTO grants patent to UC team related to CRISPR methods that enable sequence-specific repression or activation of gene expression in all types of cells.

June 4, 2019

UC GRANTED U.S. PATENT 10,308,961

USPTO grants patent to UC team covering CRISPR methods of targeting and binding a target DNA, modifying a target DNA or modulating transcription from a target DNA in a cell. The claims encompass both single guide RNAs and dual guide RNAs.

USPTO grants patent to UC team covering methods of cleaving, modifying or targeting and binding DNA in a cell using a CRISPR protein-RNA complex.

July 16, 2019

UC GRANTED U.S. PATENT 10,351,878

USPTO grants patent to UC team covering methods of producing a genetically modified cell through the introduction of the Cas9 protein, or a nucleic acid encoding the Cas9 protein, as well as a single molecule DNA-targeting RNA.

July 23, 2019

UC GRANTED U.S. PATENTS 10,358,658 & 10,358,659

USPTO grants two patents to UC team, bringing total portfolio to 10. The first is for targeting and binding, modifying or cleaving a target DNA using single-molecule guide RNAs. The second covers CRISPR methods for targeting and binding, modifying or cleaving a target DNA with a Cas9 protein that contains a mutation in a RuvC and/or HNH domain — two key parts of the Cas9 enzyme — and a single-molecule guide RNA.